I always thought the wheel covers on my 2012 Prius IV were dorky but wasn't willing to spend to upgrade them. Then I got a flat tire, and you have to remove the wheel cover to take the wheel off. Wow, the naked wheel looks GREAT! Blackout metal with nice spokes. I had seen Prii with similar setups on the road and had assumed they were a customization or an upgrade. Who knew? The only problem is the lack of a center cap, which is really only apparent when looking at the wheel straight in from the center, which hardly anyone does. So I pulled all four wheel covers off and stored them. Have others who have done this seen any negative consequences? Especially to not having a center cap?
I wouldn't say they look great, and I'm not a big fan of the gloss-black look. Then again, guess who's driving around on black steelies (with snows) right now. I just wish Toyo would shelve the whole wheel-cover-on-alloy debacle, go back to decent looking conventional alloys, as God intended. That and smarten up about the damn centred-on-dash instrument panel.
Gloss black isn't normally my preference either but it seems to work well on my dark blue Prius, and is a vast improvement over the factory covers, which for lack of a better description have "spokes" that look like bowtie pasta.
When I had my Barcelona red three, my wife lost a hubcap, so I popped the others off and never looked back. Bought the little toyota center caps and it looked good.
LOL, this guy is making bank on plastic plugs bought in bulk: 1 Set 55mm Wheel Hub 4 Pcs Center Caps Cover Satin Black '04 to '13 Toyota Prius | eBay The buyers don't realize they can get their own bag of plugs for much less than $17.
I bought the center caps from Amazon and so far will not put the wheel covers back on. What I would like to find is some chrome or stainless steel trim rings that will fit the 15 inch alloy wheels - that would make a really nice looking wheel!
If you find some, please let me know. I dislike the full black against the Blizzard Pearl and trim rings would really make the difference. I thought about dipping the wheels to white, but then the size of the 15" sidewalls really looks out of place, IMHO.
I've removed the covers and bought OEM Toyota caps for the holes in the wheels. As the owner of an earlier Gen III (2010-2011) my wheels are painted silver so they look very nice.
When we were shopping, walking around the lot, they had one 2010 (Canadian) Touring model, tucked way in back, with the 17" alloys, and a lot with the 15" wheels avec plastic covers. It was a "say what" moment when I saw those covers, a new one for me. We went for the Touring, and that one factor tipped us as much as anything.
Here's a previous post that used some trim material on the wheels, pretty sharp IMO. Perhaps you can find some in chrome or silver?:
Great idea! Even a thin silver strip would make the wheel look much better. I also have the blizzard pearl white and the black wheels look sharp along the white but the little bit of silver/chrome on the center cover and the outer wheel rim makes it look even better.
Edit, found better pic: So here a pic of my old tinted out Barcelona red prius 3 with the caps off right before I regretfully traded her in. Live and learn.
Hey I think I might've bought that car. Did you happen to trade it in at Del Toyota in Thorndale/Coatesville? I bought a car that looks EXACTLY like that. ALL windows tinted, the black rims, back in like April 2014. I always wondered why someone traded it in. They (Del Toyota) told me the couple had twins, but I imagined a repo from Coatesville lol. How'd that one rim get scraped up? (If it was your car lol).
I have a 2015 Prius and 2 of the original wheel covers have come off. Was thinking center caps would be a good and less expensive alternative. What "size" should the center caps be. I see a few sizes on ebay listed as 62mm, 57mm and maybe one other smaller maybe low 50s, can't find it right now. And I measured the other day and can't remember that right now either but I'm thinking it was in the 50s and so guessing the 57mm are what will work. Anyone know for sure?
